Six weeks into managing social media for Deep South Oil & Vinegar in Houma, Make Waves Marketing grew Facebook followers 4% with zero paid spend.
Updated
Make Waves Marketing started managing Facebook and Instagram for Deep South Oil & Vinegar on July 23, 2026. Six weeks is too short for a full case study, so this is a field note. It will be updated at the six month mark.
Deep South Oil & Vinegar is a specialty food store at 412 Corporate Drive in Houma, Louisiana. It sells infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars, including Black Garlic Dark Balsamic, Tuscan Herb, Italian Lemon, Blackberry Ginger, Watermelon, and white balsamics in coconut, pineapple, and white peach. The shop also carries bread dipping blends, bread and scone mixes, hot chocolate, Averie's Apiary local honey, Kajun Loaded Tea, kitchen gifts, and a Blind Date with a Book rack. Bottles can be brought back for refills. The shop has been open nearly 14 years, and owner Sandy, a Houma native, has owned it for more than nine.
On August 19 the agency published a first-person introduction to Sandy: wife, mother, grandmother, Houma native, 14 years of the shop, nine as owner. It reached 28,593 people, six times the page's follower count, with 669 reactions, 77 shares, and 56 comments. The page gained more followers in the ten days after that post than in the previous four weeks.
The next-best agency post, a Hosting 101 bread-dipping appetizer how-to on August 21, reached 3,229 with 68 reactions and 9 shares. The unusual-flavors post covering coconut, pineapple, and white peach balsamics reached 2,569. The bottle refill reminder reached 1,497. The combo-of-the-month posts reached 822 and 926, and the September one drew 8 comments.
Sandy also posts to the page herself, and that is useful data. Her product restocks and sale posts, covering jar openers, bowl cozies, scone mixes, hot chocolate, honey straws, and loaded tea, reach 300 to 1,100 people. Her posts with no caption reach 80 to 335. A request for egg cartons reached 1,086 with 11 reactions, which says something about how much the audience likes hearing from her directly.
The plan is to keep both voices on the page: Sandy for restocks, sales, and community asks, and Make Waves Marketing for product education, recipes, hosting content, and the monthly pairing. Every post gets a caption and the shop address.
Fall is gift season for a specialty food shop. September through December will test holiday gift sets, the Blind Date with a Book rack, and recipe content tied to Thanksgiving and Christmas. A second owner-voice post is planned for October. The six month update will cover follower growth, reach by post type, and whether online orders at deepsouthoilvinegar.com moved.
How fast did the page grow? 172 Facebook followers in six weeks, a 4% gain, most of them in the ten days after the owner introduction post.
What was the top post? A first-person "Meet Sandy" post on August 19, 2026: 28,593 reach, 669 reactions, 77 shares, 56 comments.
Was it paid? No. All figures are organic, from Metricool.